Car bombs shake two northern Iraqi cities

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Two car bombs shook the northern Iraqi cities of Baquba and Mosul today, killing at least 14 Iraqis and one US soldier. At least 126 people were wounded, including 10 US soldiers.

The first blast occurred outside forward operating base War Horse, a US outpost at the former al-Faris air force base, 50 kilometres north of Baghdad.

"At rush hour, a suicide bomber blew up his Mitsubishi," said Iraqi police Second Lieutenant Ali Hussein. "The blast led to huge damage."

The explosion killed at least four Iraqis and one American soldier, the US military and police said. Sixteen Iraqis and 10 American soldiers were wounded.

The soldiers were working at a checkpoint just outside the base when the car blew up, said Major Neal O'Brien.

The wounded were taken to a US combat hospital.

The explosion occurred just metres from the base's main gate, Hussein said. Hundreds of Iraqis who work at the base were standing in line awaiting security checks, said one of the injured, Ahmed Abdul-Latif.

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The second exploded in Mosul, 360 kilometres north-west of Baghdad, killing 10 and wounding 100 people, the US military said.

The explosion took place about 9.15am near a local government building and a school. Body parts were hurled into the street and nine vehicles were set on fire.

"We were driving in front of the school," said Khairi Ahmed Darweesh, who suffered shrapnel wounds. "Suddenly, I heard an explosion."

Witnesses saw three suicide bombers in an orange and white taxi, the US military said.

Some of the victims were taken to a military combat support hospital in Mosul.

About an hour later, attackers fired several mortar rounds at a military base camp in the northern part of the city, the military said. The attack was initially thought to have been a third car bomb.

Two contract employees received non-life threatening injuries.

Also today, five soldiers were killed clearing mines in the Polish-run occupation zone in Iraq, a Polish military spokesman told Reuters.

"During a demining operation an accidental explosion killed five coalition soldiers: two Poles, two Slovaks and one Latvian," said Colonel Zdzislaw Gnatowski, spokesman for Poland's general staff.

He said several other soldiers were injured.

Today's attacks were the latest in a series of attacks on US forces and their allies in the days leading to the handover of sovereignty in Iraq on June 30.

A car bomb exploded on Sunday near the gate of another a US-run base north of Baghdad, killing nine people and injuring 30 others - including two American soldiers, the US military said.

The latest explosions came one day after Iraq's new Prime Minister Iyad Allawi announced an agreement by nine political parties to dissolve their militias, integrating some of the 100,000 fighters into the army and police and pensioning off the rest to firm up government control ahead of the transfer of sovereignty.

The plan does not cover the most important militia fighting coalition forces - the Mehdi Army of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr - or smaller groups that have sprouted across the country since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.

Yesterday, roadside bombs killed an American soldier south of Baghdad and wounded three civilians working for a British security firm in Mosul, authorities said.

The attacks came after a weekend in which five civilian workers - including two Americans - were killed in two separate shootings.

Under the interim constitution adopted in March, armed groups outside government control will be banned as of June 30 when power transfers from the US-run occupation authority to the new interim administration.

Coalition officials said the agreement announced yesterday makes the ban effective immediately.

Some of the nine militias have effectively dissolved already, and others, notably two Kurdish groups, have been allied with the Americans for years.

US officials want to disband the Mehdi Army and arrest Sadr for the April 2003 murder of a rival cleric, although authorities have deferred both goals to reduce tensions in the Shi'ite heartland south of Baghdad.

Instead, the coalition has opted to let Allawi, himself a Shi'ite, and Shi'ite clerics deal with Sadr.

The agreement also does not cover the brigade organised by the US Marines to take control of the Sunni city of Fallujah after the end of the three-week siege in April. US officials described the Fallujah brigade as "a special auxiliary unit" under the nominal control of the Marines.

Most of the militias covered by the agreement were organised to fight Saddam. Under the program, the estimated 100,000 fighters will be treated as veterans - eligible for government benefits including pensions and job placement programs depending on their time in service.

Others, including the peshmerga fighters of the two main Kurdish parties - the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Democratic Party - will be integrated into the police, army and border security force. Officials of both parties are members of the new government.